How to use a respawn anchor in Minecraft (Java 1.21)

To use a respawn anchor, place it in the Nether, charge it by using a block of glowstone on it (up to four times), then use it again without glowstone in your hand to set your spawn there. Each respawn at the anchor costs one charge ^[1]. Below are the recipe, where to find crying obsidian and glowstone without a long hunt, the rules that make an anchor fail or explode, and why a bot that died 75 times in the Nether still never built one.

All game facts in this post are for Java Edition 1.21.x unless a line says otherwise. Nixi’s run is on 1.21.4.

What a respawn anchor does

A respawn anchor is the Nether’s version of a bed. Beds can’t set your spawn in the Nether: they explode there ^[2]. An anchor is the block that can, as long as it has glowstone charge in it ^[1].

Two rules from the anchor’s page shape everything else [@mcwiki-respawn-anchor]:

• It keeps working after you leave the Nether. If your spawn is at an anchor, you respawn there even when you die in the Overworld.
• It replaces your bed; it doesn’t back it up. Using a charged anchor overrides your bed spawn, and if the anchor later fails you go to the world spawn, not to your old bed.

So an anchor is a choice: every death, wherever it happens, sends you back to the Nether while it has charge.

Respawn anchor recipe

You craft a respawn anchor at a crafting table from 6 crying obsidian and 3 glowstone blocks: crying obsidian fills the top and bottom rows, and the three glowstone blocks go across the middle row ^[1]. It stacks to 64 ^[1].

Glowstone here means the block, not the dust. Four glowstone dust in a 2×2 square craft one block ^[3].

How to get crying obsidian

Crying obsidian is the purple, dripping variant of obsidian. You can’t craft it, and normal obsidian can’t be turned into it ^[4]. Like the anchor, it needs a diamond pickaxe to mine; anything weaker gets nothing ^[4]. There are two practical sources.

Ruined portals

Ruined portals are broken portal frames found in the Overworld and the Nether. When one generates, each of its obsidian blocks has a 15% chance in Java (20% in Bedrock) to be crying obsidian instead ^{[5, 4]}. You need six for one anchor.

If you’re also using that ruined portal to build a Nether portal, remember that crying obsidian can’t be part of a working portal frame ^[4]. The Nether portal without diamonds guide covers how to finish such a frame with cast obsidian.

Bartering with piglins

Piglins trade for gold ingots: you throw or hand one an ingot, and after looking at it for about six seconds it throws you a random item ^[6]. Crying obsidian is one of those items, 1–3 at a time ^[6].

The chance depends on your version, because 1.21.6 added dried ghasts to the bartering list [@mcwiki-bartering]:

The first row’s chance is from the wiki’s archive of older loot tables ^[7]; the second row is the current table ^[6]. The ÷ 2 is the average of 1–3 per trade. For the six blocks of one anchor, that’s about 6 × 5.74 ≈ 34 gold ingots on 1.21.4, on average. Bartering is also the only renewable source of crying obsidian ^[4].

How to get glowstone

You need 3 glowstone blocks to craft the anchor and up to 4 more to fill it, so 7 blocks, or 28 dust, for a fully charged anchor.

• In the Nether: glowstone grows in clusters on the underside of ceilings and overhangs in every Nether biome, though rarely in soul sand valleys ^[3]. Broken without Silk Touch, a glowstone block drops 2–4 dust; Fortune raises the odds but never past 4 ^[3]. So the 28 dust takes between 7 and 14 broken blocks (28 ÷ 4 and 28 ÷ 2). A Silk Touch tool skips the maths: it drops the block itself ^[3].
• Trading: a journeyman cleric villager always sells glowstone for 4 emeralds, and wandering traders sometimes sell it for 2 ^[3].
• Witches can drop glowstone dust ^[8].

How to charge a respawn anchor

1. Place it in the Nether. A fresh anchor has no charge and can’t be used yet ^[1].
2. Use a glowstone block on it. Each block adds one charge, up to 4. The dial on its side shows the level, and the anchor glows brighter with each one: light level 3, 7, 11 and 15 ^[1].
3. Use the charged anchor (not holding glowstone, or you add another charge) to set your spawn. A message confirms it ^[1].

A dispenser holding glowstone can charge it too, and a redstone comparator reads its charge as a signal of 3, 7, 11 or 15 ^[1]. Charging it to 4 earns the advancement Not Quite “Nine” Lives; picking up crying obsidian earns Who is Cutting Onions? ^[9].

Why a respawn anchor fails

Each death at the anchor uses a charge, even when another player respawns there: a shared anchor shares its charges ^[1]. If the anchor has run out, has been destroyed, or has no safe space beside it, you respawn at the world spawn with the message “You have no home bed or charged Respawn Anchor, or it was obstructed” ^[1].

For the space, the anchor needs a free spot at least one block wide and two high around it, and it tries the four sides before the corners (since 1.16.2) ^[1]. Keep at least one side of it clear, with floor under it. The full set of reasons a spawn point resets, beds included, is in why did my spawn point reset.

Two things don’t use a charge: coming home through the End’s exit portal after the dragon fight, which hasn’t counted as a respawn since 1.21.2 ^[1], and, in Hardcore, the anchor can’t bring you back at all, though it may still teleport you and use charges ^[1].

Why a respawn anchor explodes

If you try to set your spawn at a charged anchor in the Overworld or the End, it explodes and is destroyed, with power 5, and sets fire to the blocks around it ^[1]. That’s the same power as a bed in the Nether, and stronger than TNT’s 4 ^[2]. The death message credits “Intentional Game Design” ^[1].

That makes a charged anchor a one-shot explosive outside the Nether ^[1]. Since Java 1.19.3 a raised shield blocks the blast properly ^{[1, 10]}; see how to use a shield for the timing.

Small rules worth knowing

• Hoglins flee from respawn anchors, even empty ones ^[1]. An anchor by your Nether base is also a hoglin repellent.
• The ender dragon can’t break it, and pistons can’t move it ^[1].
• Crying obsidian gives light level 10 and has obsidian’s blast resistance of 1,200; you can’t place an end crystal on it ^[4].

Nixi’s angle: 75 Nether deaths and no anchor

Nixi is an openly AI VTuber whose bot plays Minecraft Java 1.21.4 on its own, live on Twitch (how her bot works). Her death log from 2026-10-01 10:17 to 2026-10-09 22:48, the end of run 1 and all of run 2, holds 144 deaths. 75 of them were in the Nether: 30 in lava, 24 in fire, 5 from falls, and the rest from other causes.

Her play logs and death records don’t show her ever crafting or using a respawn anchor. Every one of those Nether deaths sent her back to the Overworld. On 2026-10-04 one sent her about 420 blocks from her deep Overworld portal, and getting back through it took until 17:07, with four pickaxes crafted on the way; that story and its fix (re-using the bed by the portal before every trip) are in why did my spawn point reset.

Would an anchor have been the better fix? The rules above say it’s a trade, not a free win:

• For it: a Nether death would put her back beside the anchor, not a portal trip away.
• Against it: her Overworld deaths would have sent her into the Nether too, because an anchor overrides the bed ^[1]. Each death would also use a charge, and an empty anchor drops her at the world spawn, the same walk she was trying to avoid.
• The cost: 6 crying obsidian, mined only with a diamond pickaxe, or about 34 gold ingots of bartering, plus 7 glowstone blocks.

That’s our reading of the rules, not something her run tested. Her skill tree, the list of behaviours her planner can pick from, now has a respawn-anchor leaf (“a respawn point in the Nether, by the fortress”, from bartered or ruined-portal crying obsidian), but there is no record of her taking it. If she builds one in a later run, this section gets the numbers.

For staying alive near Nether lava in the first place, see how to survive the Nether’s lava edges.

FAQ

How many times can you respawn with a respawn anchor?

Four times on a full charge: each glowstone block adds one charge, up to 4, and each respawn uses one ^[1]. Recharge it with more glowstone before it runs out.

Does a respawn anchor work in the Overworld?

No. It sets your spawn only in the Nether. Trying to set your spawn with a charged anchor in the Overworld or the End makes it explode with power 5 ^[1].

Can you charge a respawn anchor with glowstone dust?

No, only with glowstone blocks. Craft four dust into one block first ^{[1, 3]}.

Where do you respawn if you die in the Overworld with a respawn anchor set?

At the anchor in the Nether, as long as it has charge and space beside it. The anchor overrides your bed ^[1].

Can you get crying obsidian without diamonds?

Not by mining: it drops nothing without a diamond or netherite pickaxe. Bartering with piglins gives it as an item, 1–3 at a time ^{[4, 6]}.